


Refuge & Respite

by writingalaxies



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Liam/Theo is softly hinted, Light Angst, Mason-centric, Multi, Pack Feels, Pack Sleepovers, give these kids a break, set directly after 6x15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 04:36:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11913342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingalaxies/pseuds/writingalaxies
Summary: Following the last scene in 6x15, the pack takes a desperately needed break and builds blanket nests at Deaton's. That's it, that's the fic.





	Refuge & Respite

"What did you think we were gonna do? _Run?"_

Scott's lips twitched up into a barely visible smile, his eyebrows raised as if to say, _Come on, really?,_ and Mason was dimly aware of how utterly thunderstruck he must look, standing in front of the pack he'd thought had left him behind, disbelieving and still slightly out of breath from running all the way to the animal clinic.

His gaze caught Liam's for a moment, who offered a sheepish shrug in response. Mason swallowed against the tight feeling in his throat and said, "Well," not even aware that he turned around to Corey until he had already done it, "I guess you're pretty convincing liars."

The words left a bitter taste on his tongue and when Corey's face fell, Mason wished he could push them back to the bitter part of his thoughts they'd come from. He considered adding something to lessen the blow but someone cleared their throat loudly and Corey looked away, his shoulders hunched, the moment lost.

"Alright," Liam said at length.

Like negative poles collectively drawn towards their postive counterpart, everyone glanced at Scott in silent anticipation. Mason noticed out of the corner of his eye, taking a bit longer to give up on trying to catch Corey's gaze again before turning his attention back to the room at large.

Scott had moved further into open space - their center, figuratively and literally - and the air seemed to shift, heavy with restless energy.

Malia and Liam pushed away from the examination table they had been leaning against; Lydia crossed her arms, every inch a badass banshee, and even Theo looked more attentive than grumpy at his spot by the far wall.

 _We're just kids,_ Mason thought, _This shouldn't feel like soldiers getting ready for war._

But then crimson seeped into the warm brown of Scott's eyes, flashing briefly at each of them before Scott said, "No matter how many people fear us, or hunt us ... this is our home. We have to fight for it."

And Mason knew they'd stopped being kids, everyone in this room, inevitably.

It was a powerful thought. A terrifying one, too.

Across from him, Malia growled through bared fangs. "Let's kick some hunter's ass."

Lydia shot her a grin, exasperated and fond and familiar, and Mason looked away because he felt uncomfortable intruding on a kind of pack intimacy he couldn't quite comprehend - not yet, at least.

His chest felt tight again.

"So. When do we start?" Corey asked quietly, and Mason wondered if he imagined the strain in his voice. Wished for werewolf senses so he could hear Corey's heartbeat and know for sure. Instead, he shifted his weight and took a subtle step towards his boyfriend, aching for closeness and the ability to breathe a little easier.

Liam gave Mason a knowing look.

Before he had a chance to react appropriately, Scott shrugged and said, "Tomorrow's soon enough. We should all get some rest now."

"But -" Malia cut in, scowling.

Scott moved to her side, touching her shoulder lightly. "We're no use to anyone exhausted like this. For the moment, we're safe here. Let's rest."

"Sure, let's squeeze in some of the dog cages in the back, why don't we?" Theo sneered.

Malia growled at him. The challenging gleam didn't fade from Theo's face but he did shrink a bit further against the wall.

Scott turned to him, precautionarily keeping his arm in front of Malia. "Don't worry, I've got that covered. Liam?"

"On it."

Liam disappeared through the back door into what Mason assumed was some sort of storage room and left the rest of them with puzzled faces.

When he returned, he was carrying a bunch of sleeping bags he had piled so high in his arms, they swayed dangerously with each step.

"What -" Theo muttered incredulously, leaving the sentence unfinished while Scott smiled and took some of the sleeping bags from Liam.

"Deaton helped us out," he explained. "There's a bunch of blankets in the back as well. We can just put them all on the floor, it's enough space."

Theo puffed out a sharp breath. "Are you serious?"

"You can go sleep outside if you want," Malia suggested sweetly. "No one would mind."

"It's just for a night, don't be ridiculous," Lydia said in a neutral tone. She grabbed a sleeping bag from Scott and slid it across the table in Theo's direction, looking at him expectantly until he pushed himself off the wall with grudging obedience and took it.

With the potential desaster averted for the time being, everyone relaxed and got busy preparing their temporary sleeping spaces. 

Mason nudged Corey gently. "Let's go get some blankets before Liam hogs them all."

"I can hear you, you know," Liam shouted from across the room in mock-offense but Mason was too caught-up in the startled but relieved grin Corey directed at him to answer. 

"Sounds good," Corey said. The lingering hesitance in his words and body language made Mason flinch inwardly and he laced his fingers with Corey's, carefully at first, then squeezing tightly. 

"I'm glad you're here," he said quietly. 

Corey squeezed back and looked down at their joined hands before replying. "Sorry I lied to you."

"You had to. I get it. And I'm not mad, I promise."

"If you're done angsting around, you could take these and get settled," Malia told them, suddenly standing in front of Corey and dumping an armful of blankets on him. Mason startled and, with their hands still tangled, they both reached out and awkwardly caught the blankets between them. For a moment, they stood motionless and watched Malia drop her own sleeping bag by the wall closest to the front door, joining Scott and Lydia. ("This is crap," Malia declared and shoved the blankets Scott tried to give her back at him. "Let Lydia have them." - "I can get some more -" - "I slept in a forest for years, Scott, I'll be _fine."_ \- "She has a point.")

It was such a casual exchange to witness, something so ... trivial. All at once Mason found himself reminded of how little normalcy he'd had in his life lately, and then, just in time to stop that train of thought from taking darker turns, Corey turned to him and Mason caught his gaze, and they burst out laughing.

The bundle of blankets still clutched between them, they stood like idiots in the middle of the room and laughed because they _could;_ becausethey were save, and a shit ton of fear gathered in the pit of your stomach seemed best dealt with by suffocating it with spontaneous giddiness. Mason was pretty sure it made scientific sense.

Then Liam approached them slowly, muttering the "What the hell, dudes?" that was silently written all over Theo's furrowed eyebrows and judgmental stare over in his corner - except that Liam was grinning when he said it and pulled Mason into a sideways hug. Mason leaned into it, quieting down and catching his breath.

 _You're here_ , he thought, still overwhelmed. _You're all here. I thought you'd left._

What he said aloud was: "We haven't had a sleepover since we were ten."

Liam snorted but quickly turned more serious, remembering the night Mason had told him about after images and the one that continued to haunt him.

"Good night, guys," Scott called softly from his spot by the door - guarding his pack, always, even in the inevitable vulnerability of sleep. A messy chorus of voices returned the sentiment, draining the last remnants of tension out of the room.

Glad about the distraction, Mason coordinated the blankets somewhat evenly between himself and Corey and didn't look at Liam when he said, "Alright, how about we stay right here? I don't really feel like crawling under that table."

Corey glanced at him and Liam uncertainly but, when no one said anything else, shrugged and dropped his stuff. "Fine with me."

It took a long moment of shuffling around each other and bumping elbows and kicking off their shoes into random directions but in the end they stood in front of a comfy nest of blankets, the room quiet except for some soft snores coming from Scott and the girls' direction.

Mason exhaled a slow breath, satisfied and more than ready to follow Corey's example, who was already laying down on one side and snuggling up with the sheets pulled up to his chin. He was just about to do the same when Liam grabbed his wrist lightly. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, sounding a little rough around the edges so he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yes. It's ... I think it'll be okay when we're all here, you know?"

Liam's worried expression softened. "Okay."

"What's wrong?" Corey asked, pushing up on his elbows, and wow, wasn't it wonderful to be surrounded by people with superhuman senses all the time?

"Nothing," Mason said, "Let's just sleep, okay?" But Corey's frown only deepened and Liam let go of his wrist, and something cold in Mason's chest threatened to grow and settle beneath his ribcage. He sighed, dropping onto the sleeping bag next to Corey. "I keep seeing the ... the body we found." He cast a quick glance across the room to make sure no one was moving more than a sleeping person would over at Scott's corner, and Theo was preoccupied with grumpily rearranging his sleeping bag on the opposite side. Only then, Mason lay down and slid a hand towards Corey, who wriggled his own free from his sleeping bag and met Mason halfway.

"Like, in your nightmares?"

"No," Mason said softly and heard sheets rustle as Liam sat down behind him. "Like, everywhere. Even when I'm awake. It's worse when I'm alone, though."

He felt his pulse reverberate against his bones, oddly hyper-aware of the steady beat while he looked at Corey, wondering how loud it must sound to his ears.

 _Let me protect you,_ Corey had told him, and Mason had thought he meant leaving Beacon Hills and getting the trouble away from Mason. Now, Corey said, "I'll keep you safe, then," his words calm and honest and not at all like he was going to leave; like it was that easy.

But maybe it was. After images _did_ fade at some point, didn't they?

Mason felt a soft smile tugging at his lips. "Okay."

In the steadily darkening room, Corey's eyes were even brighter than usual when he let them flash yellow for a moment, the edges of his features briefly melting into their surroundings as if he was turning invisible, but it was just a flicker of a second. A reminder for Mason that his boyfriend was pretty badass and probably very much able to defend him from reoccuring hallucinations.

He pulled his blanket up around himself and turned around, his back to Corey and Corey's arm loosely slung around his waist.

An affectionate little snort greeted Mason when he was face to face with Liam again, followed by, "Am I third-wheeling here? I'm definitely third-wheeling."

"You ... might be," Mason admitted and felt Corey exhale a laugh against his neck. "But we're doing this whole pack family thing, right? C'mere."

He patted the sleeping bag Liam was sitting on, deciding that tonight was definitely not the time to turn down additional cuddles. Liam considered him for a moment, face scrunching up slightly before he turned his head to the far corner where Theo was shifting restlessly. He had pushed his stuff as close to the wall as possible, the empty examination table a physical barrier between Theo and the rest of the pack.

Mason just needed to see the unhappy frown on Liam's face to know what was coming next.

"You know, actually ..." Liam said slowly, fiddling with the blanket bunched around his legs.

"He'll probably punch you in his sleep," Corey muttered.

Mason considered elbowing him, then remembered he wasn't exactly Theo's biggest fan either and didn't, but Liam just shrugged and said, "We kinda have a history of punching each other, so, whatever."

"You sure?" Mason asked, throwing another glance at Theo. "He doesn't strike me as the cuddly type, you know."

"He can probably hear you," Liam said, raising an eyebrow as he pushed himself to his feet. "And I wasn't planning to cuddle. I just ... he's been the lone wolf long enough, okay?"

He grabbed his sleeping bag and blankets and turned to go, and Mason, snuggling a little closer to Corey, said, "Liam, you're too good for this world."

Liam grinned. "Or maybe I'm just stupid."

Mason didn't bother with a response. He watched Liam walk around the table and crouch next to Theo, the latter pushing up on his elbows and glaring half-heartedly at Liam's approach. Liam talked to him quietly, gesturing at his sleeping bag and then the empty space of floor next to Theo. His human sense of hearing wasn't enough to make out what he was saying, but Mason guessed it couldn't have been the wrong thing since Theo offered Liam a one-shouldered shrug and lay back down.

"Are they at each other's throats yet?" Corey asked, his voice sleepy and warm against Mason's back.

Mason huffed and watched Liam put his makeshift bed down and settle in next to Theo, a moderate but definitely _not_ 'I-don't-trust-you'-big distance between them. "No. Actually, they're quite civil."

The only answer he got was a soft snore.

**Author's Note:**

> I love these kids so much I want to cry.


End file.
